[Dalaran1991]

Its the summer so its getting way too hot to do heavy longsword sparring, so Im getting back to the gym after a year of intense martial arts focus.

Its pretty interesting the contrast between combat sports and lifting. Getting out of combat training I would be soaked in sweat, heightened attention and reflexes with bruises all over. However the muscular feedback is much less pronounced. I get bruised here and there from getting hit but nothing special.

Lifting is a lot less fun for me because there's no sense of danger or intensity (nobody is swinging 2kg of metal at you) but the feedback from your muscles is substantial. Biceps still sore and my arms cant straighten, and i have trouble climbing stairs after leg days. My back pain is also mostly gone. The best thing about lifting is that you can target specific muscle group that you want to train.

Also the beginning of the "back to the gym" period is the best because you feel the most muscle sore and progress.

Trying to figure out how to balance lifting and combat training at the same time. A bit concerned that the heavy cardio will "eat away" the muscle and the stiffness from lifting will slow my mobility in combat. Looking up Teddy Riner training regime.

[sterling_archer]

Lifters, I want to share with you something I realized today and I want your opinion on this.

So this past weeks since starting SS, my lifts and BW has been steadily going up, never mind press which is always first to slow down. But last friday, squat has been a real chore. This monday, I lifted again 2,5 kg more than on friday, but it was damn near impossible to do. I even did 5,4,5 reps instead of 5,5,5. Because of this I decided that today I will repeat the same weight and not increase it and so I did. Easier than on monday, but a huge deal. And then it hit me...

I realized what is going on and what is possibly the fault of this.
The whole wall behind squat racks is a giant mirror. Since the beginning I must admit I was guilty of looking at myself from the front while lifting, even though front view doesn't show you much. That being said, it was a big help on press grip width and I immediately corrected it, but regarding squat I think it is making me not utilize hip drive properly and thus not having correct form.

When I go up or down during squat my eyes always look at how my butt is going, to see what is my depth. Always going for things slightly under parallel and that is fine, but in fact my head should be at the angle, a continuation of the angle of the back. By making that angle I should utilize hip drive. Since I am looking almost straight in front of me to see what is my depth instead of feeling it, my head is not in correct position.
I watched again squat videos and it is perfectly clear, when you don't put head like this, your bar speed suddenly drops and hip drive doesn't work like it should. That is exactly what is happening. I see that I am going up like a fucking snail. The point is, you can do valsalva correctly, have proper grip, stance, as less moment arm as possible and still mess up squat like I do because of head.

What are your opinions? Do you think that my biggest concern is angle of the the neck/head or something else?

Tnx

[General Stalin]

All you can do is try different positions and cues and see how it works out. My rule of thumb for squatting (lowbar) is to look at the ground a few feet in front of you.

Check out this video for some lessons on good form and cues. Also at the 5:00 mark is a diagram on proper head position:

[sterling_archer]

That is one of the videos I watched today (subscribed to his channel btw) and it has been really helpful together with SS official channel.

[godfather dust]

I'm hitting a leg workout in 10 minutes.

My shoulder is starting to get better, can't wait. I enjoy the upper body workouts more.

[Mizo1234]

Guys,
@ 5'6" height , how much body weight at 10% body fat will give me the underwear model look ? More like Calvin Harris look

[randomA]

(05-23-2018 12:03 PM)sterling_archer Wrote:  

What are your opinions? Do you think that my biggest concern is angle of the the neck/head or something else?

Tnx

I'm a lowbar squatter myself.
When I did my SS I too had lots of trouble at the beginning without a coach to master proper lowbar form. Eventually I did it and never went back to highbar again.

Anyway, I think at beginner stages the head position is really important. And yes, the mirror is distracting. I fixed the problem by turning the J-hooks away from the mirror so that my stance would be giving my back to the mirror and facing the J-hooks. Always have your face front the rack for safety!
Head should be aligned with your spine at all times, if you're looking at some point in the mirror the angle will change. Also the distraction from the mirror will make you lose focus on what you need to do: thinking about your body position in the space, and cues for forward lean, hip drive, bracing etc.

[flanders]

(05-23-2018 09:06 PM)Mizo1234 Wrote:  

Guys,
@ 5'6" height , how much body weight at 10% body fat will give me the underwear model look ? More like Calvin Harris look

Calvin Harris is like 6' 6", so I have no idea how to answer your question.
Just lift weights until you get there dude. Nothing is an exact science with this shit.

[randomA]

(05-23-2018 09:06 PM)Mizo1234 Wrote:  

Guys,
@ 5'6" height , how much body weight at 10% body fat will give me the underwear model look ? More like Calvin Harris look

That's what, like... 55-60kg? Maybe that's even too much for 10%bf.

[General Stalin]

Shredded and lean but NOT huge muscles at 5'6"? Prolly looking at like 140 lbs maybe even less. Will depend a lot on your body composition as well.

[Dalaran1991]

(05-23-2018 09:06 PM)Mizo1234 Wrote:  

Guys,
@ 5'6" height , how much body weight at 10% body fat will give me the underwear model look ? More like Calvin Harris look

5'4 at 125lbs here, I have a visible but not sculpted 6 packs, a pronounced V-figure. No huge muscles though. So at 5"6 you are looking at 130lbs.

Actually, my roommate is 5"8, about 12% body fat, 136 lbs. He's a combat cardio guy so no muscle but pure lean mass, almost like Bruce Lee. So yeah keep it under 135 lbs.

[sterling_archer]

I am being curious, what are limitations of weightlifting at bodyweight this low? I mean, are you still able to pull and push weights twice over your BW?

[Dalaran1991]

(05-24-2018 09:01 AM)sterling_archer Wrote:  

I am being curious, what are limitations of weightlifting at bodyweight this low? I mean, are you still able to pull and push weights twice over your BW?

I bench 150% my BW and squat twice my BM, if we use the 1 rep max standard. More importantly I can swing 4lbs longsword at people

As long as you are still eating enough I don't think there's any problem. I definitely need to eat more if I want more defined muscles and break through my lifting plateau, but I don't force something that should be a pleasure. So that's one con.

A big advantage: is beach season, so 6 pack + shredded > big muscle for me.

The real advantage here is bodyweight exercise. At this low BW all you need to maintain your physique is BW.

[General Stalin]

(05-24-2018 09:01 AM)sterling_archer Wrote:  

I am being curious, what are limitations of weightlifting at bodyweight this low? I mean, are you still able to pull and push weights twice over your BW?

This is going to 100% depend on the individual. Lifting X*BW is not exactly relevant here as it is generally much easier for someone who weighs less to move a lot of weight compared to their own weight verses someone who weighs more (this is why the Wilks score and similar algorithms were developed).

The strongest men in the world can deadlift 1000 lbs, and they weight 400+. That's a 2.5xBW deadlift. Comparatively, there are literally thousands of dudes in the 200 lbs area that can deadlift 600 lbs; a 3xBW deadlift.

[sterling_archer]

Ok, that makes sense. That being said, how one should know that he entered into intermediate phase and should be changing program accordingly to his goals? Asking for future.

[General Stalin]

There are a lot of ways to "measure" you experience level in weight training. Some say basic numbers "bench press 5 x 5 x 225, Squat 5 x 5 x 315, Deadlift 5 x 5 x 405" something like that. Others will say based on your Wilks score. Can also simply be your years under the bar and your evolution of training.

[randomA]

(05-24-2018 10:56 AM)sterling_archer Wrote:  

Ok, that makes sense. That being said, how one should know that he entered into intermediate phase and should be changing program accordingly to his goals? Asking for future.

Sorry but I dont think the previous answer is accurate.

The only metric to tell whether you're novice/intermediate is based on whether you are able to add weight to the bar each session you have at the gym.

>put weight on the bar each session = novice
>put weight on the bar each week/2 week/etc = intermediate

usually advanced is where you need month(s)-long cycles before hitting a new PR.

Source: Starting Strength.

[General Stalin]

^what if someone peaks on SS's 5x5 linear progression after only 4 months. Would you call them an intermediate lifter because they have plateaued?

[Fortis]

Sterling, don't worry about this other stuff until you get there. You'll know when you plateau'd and need to seek help. Don't plan to plateau at a pre-determined weight, that can become a limiting belief.

[Montrose]

‘Intermediate’ has two meanings. A pedagogic meaning, which is ‘having reach a plateau on novice linear progression’. And a performance meaning, which is based on how much weight you lift.

For healthy young male lifters, both meanings of ‘intermediate’ may coincide. But if you’re not in that demographics, or if you have some genetic specificity (thin bones...), you might become ‘intermediate’ in the pedagogic sense earlier than in the performance sense.

Conclusion: you should not make decisions on your progression based on how much you lift. You might well have to shift to an intermediate programme at 200 squat if you’re old and weak. Nothing wrong with that.

[randomA]

(05-25-2018 01:41 AM)General Stalin Wrote:  

^what if someone peaks on SS's 5x5 linear progression after only 4 months. Would you call them an intermediate lifter because they have plateaued?

Absolutely.
Being a novice = making a use of noob gainz.
Noob gainz = the fastest period of time where you'll put the most absolute weight on the bar (e.g. 100kg in 3 months). That's why it's such a short period.

SS or SL5x5 or greyskull etc. are not designed , in fact, to last more than 12-16 weeks because thats when the "general population" will stop being a novice and become an intermediate = no more noob gainz.

Intermediate = vast majority of the population who lifts (provided they've gone through a stable novice linear progression: if one has never tried doing that, then they should do that and exhaust their noob gainz first; that might even last less than 12 weeks if they already have somewhat of a lifting/varsity sport background).

[sterling_archer]

My observation of the squat when I applied today what I have learned over these past few days regarding gaze, mirrors and such. I managed to do 3,5,5 reps of 77,5 kg with belt. On Wednesday I managed to do 5,5,5 of 75 kg. So by using belt, looking at the right direction and not worrying about mirror, I managed to increase lift by 2,5 kg and it felt almost easier than on Wednesday. That being said, you can see that I didn't hit the 5 reps on first set so I will be lifting same weight next time.

Now regarding deadlift there is a slight confusion. I attempted to do 115 kg but I couldn't. I guess 5 kg more than Monday is too much. Ok, never mind that but coach criticized my form and said that my hips are too high and my back is rounding at the middle of the pull.
He showed me how is he doing it and his hip position is pretty much same as the position Mehdi does on the far left:



I managed to pull 100 kg this way and it was a chore, but apparently my back didn't round. Not sure what to think of it as both SS book and SL website advocates for higher hip position but also I read that hip position primarily depends on your build and not on a hard written rule.

[Fortis]

Banged out 150kg squat at 72-3kg bodyweight even though I haven't really been squatting much over the past 2-3 months. Feels good.

[Benoit]

(05-25-2018 05:08 AM)sterling_archer Wrote:  

My observation of the squat when I applied today what I have learned over these past few days regarding gaze, mirrors and such. I managed to do 3,5,5 reps of 77,5 kg with belt. On Wednesday I managed to do 5,5,5 of 75 kg. So by using belt, looking at the right direction and not worrying about mirror, I managed to increase lift by 2,5 kg and it felt almost easier than on Wednesday. That being said, you can see that I didn't hit the 5 reps on first set so I will be lifting same weight next time.

You really don't need a belt for squats at this point. I'd put money on it that the other form changes you made got you the extra weight, and you can do it without the belt.

Training belts give a slight benefit but a lot of it is only psychological. A serious competition belt will demonstrate your form weaknesses only at heavy weight, because it's so solid that it will 'bite' you when you loosen up mid-lift.

Squatting with a belt is almost a different lift, stick to beltless until you put at least another 50kg on the bar, then you can add the belt and get 10-20kg benefit, not 2.5.

[sterling_archer]

I did the first 3 reps beltless and other 2 x 5 with belt. Actually I didn't feel it helps me in regard lifting the weight easier, it's just that valsalva movement is much more pronounced when using it.